Heretofore, one seeking to present a friend or associate with a greeting card or a poster has the following choices:
(1) If he has sufficient creative and artistic talent, he may take a blank card form or a poster and draw and letter an appropriate message, caricature, pictorial display or whatever is desired; or
(2) He can seek out a greeting card or a poster retailer and look through the hundreds of choices of cards, attempting to find one which is appropriate for the occasion, and particularly for the recipient.
Few fall into the first category and can make their own acceptable cards, and those who do truly find their talent appreciated, but most of all a great amount of time is expended in not only the creative but in the artistic aspects of making a card. Such activity is reserved by those who have that ability for very special occasions and persons. Most of us fall into the second category and have noted the frustration in attempting to find an appropriate card.
In the case of children, one type of personalized gift has been developed which is sometimes referred to as the "ME" book. These are picture books for very young children in which the name of the child and perhaps his address or the name of his pet are injected into the text of a book, which is then printed and bound in conventional form. These "ME" books have received a degree of acceptance, however, they are hardly appropriate for adults and because of the high degree of standardization, allow only a few words to be personalized, and have a relatively short term interest for the recipient.
The U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,892,427 and 3,982,744 disclose a process for manufacturing the "ME" type books and illustrate clearly that the insertion of the personalized textual material must be accomplished in the book printing environment. Consequently, "ME" books are usually purchasable from the manufacturer or publisher by mail with a substantial time delay between ordering and receipt.